Right, so after a crisis attributed to waiting on car delivery times which no-one could pin down, the missus and i (after being momentarily coerced by a beautiful, throaty, 5.5 sec VF SSV wagon for less money but almost certainly far higher running costs) went into our dealer with many, many questions on the RS. Nailed down the problems, as far as the dealer was very recently informed, with delays and option discrepancies, and made some hard choices... So, we've made the plunge into RS territory.
From what we've been advised build issues are solely attributed to the VCC, Reverse camera and black pack, but the big delay is ultimately with the camera installation and supply (all build orders pushed back to January). So, in our dealers estimation (which we stated would affect the sale if a long way off the mark) without those particular accessories we could still expect delivery by January. We also managed to get options otherwise mentioned here as 'pack-only'.
So, we got a moon white RS TSI DSG wagon with 18' Geminis, black pack, pano sunroof, Canton sound, leather, alarm, roof bars and netting system for $46,700. We'll be happy if we get it before February. Obviously. Still debating the choice of metallic white over flat though.... Looks great in sunlight!
*EDIT. There was (is?) conjecture between the missus and i (we both love manuals) about getting the manual still. I couldn't quite make the case that the extra economy/performance was better than the otherwise ease of driving/ apparent eventual resale value... Was a very close thing from my POV. Worth the extra $2.5k? I'm not convinced....